They were so close with going with the game but nooooo they couldn't resist adding changes to it, man I am so sick of these so called video game based movies.


BTW, The effects in your review were awesome...I'll never look at a 1up the same again...why do I think of Ozzy when I heard Rose scream Sharon. As for the barbwire slaughter scene...can you say
KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL FRENZY!!!!

It's a joke ending from the second game.

On a side note. Your opinion on this movie is pretty much exactly the same as mine was.

New review, the ending was nice.

I thought it was a decent movie, not the best movie ever.

Though imo it's the best video game movie made so far.

Makes me wonder how you felt about Homecoming. I liked it.

Pretty sure they are making another Silent Hill movie based on the second game, maybe they will do better.

Homecoming I felt was ok but disappointing. It seems to be way too focused on being an action game rather than giving you the Silent Hill feel of the previous installments.
Yeah Silent Hill 2 would probably be an easier adaptation but we'll see...

you should review hatchet and the halloween remake!

I think the ending was trying to capture the feeling of the second game. Y'know. Where you had that weird foreshadowing that made no sense until you really thought about it? I'm not saying they did a good job but w/e

oh, and throughout the movie the camera angles were like silent hill. Not just at the start.

If you go to the special features and watch the behind the scenes commentary, you'll really appreciate the hell the guy in the armless costume went through.

finally... WHY DID CYBIL HAVE TO DIE?! T_T

Nicely done, Phelous. Mixed review of the film and I'm a big fan of the stories of Silent Hill (Never actually played a single one of the games), so seeing the parts they got right were spiffy.

Also: Fun with Pyramid Head was hilarious as well as anytime you went back to the dad and had the dog credits. XD

Haha Fun with Pyramid Head was my favorite thing I put in.
I certainly recommend trying the games at some point if you have the time and are interested in it's kind of gameplay.

The movies better then the comics were. lol

Awesome job as always Phelan. That's pretty much how I felt about this movie too. When I knew that Harry Mason's character was going to be a woman I knew other things were going to change. I'm real glad they got some other things right though. So all in all great job.

I liked it, great job. Now the real question lies...would Cybercat (Dena) approve? :?:

This gets the Cyborcat seal of approval!

I hate that fucking movie >=P

Hurray!

That was a very interesting review. I loved the comparisons between the game and the movie. Keep it up!

I really enjoyed this review actually. Having seen the film myself (and considered it for reviewing myself), the only bit I really missed was that you didn't mention that the plot stops once she gets to Silent Hill and doesn't resume until they get into the church, resulting in a massive third act exposition dump. That was so bad.

Well don't let my video stop you from making one, I'm sure it'd be pretty different and I'd like to see it. Yeah I was just too angry about what came out of the exposition dump. It was indeed bad.

You bring up many valid points (Sean Bean wandering in the ruins are actually rather pointless scenes now that I think of it) but I read from somewhere that the movie takes several elements from the first three games instead of just being the 1:1 adaption of the first game. And wouldn't it be quite boring if all adaptions were exact copy from their source materials?

I liked this film (and I consider it to be the best video game adaption there is) but then again I have never played any Silent Hill game so perhaps I'm not as dissapointed as I should be.

Good review. Phelous seems to just keep getting better and better. We need more, though!

I really like the production quality of your video! I also enjoy how your background is interesting and full of many different things!

Though I think you should try standing and walking around a bit while you talk. ^_~

do some close ups! =D

Thank ya. I doubt I'll be doing much walking around though as I usually do the majority of the reviews solo. Only if I have something that will require more people or a shot needing someone manning the camera will I bother with it as the effort of getting people out I usually reserve for other projects.

What's even worse is that there's going to be a 2nd movie... I don't even want to think about how theyre going to go about that train reck.

I'm really hating Konami right now. There were a lot of studios that were trying to obtain the rights to this franchise to turn it into a film (I heard once that tom cruise wanted the rights to it once. Could you imagion him has Harry? You know at least with cruise we'd get a secret UFO ending. XD), and all Gans did to get it was mix videos from the game with music to make them think he knows the series well.

The collective did the same damn thing when it came to getting their contract with Homecoming.

This is how easily Konami hands out Silent Hill? All you need to do is splice some videos together and make an AMV? It's BS. And now we're getting a SH phone game, a SH arcade shooter, and a SH1 Wii port...

A port? Aww boo. I wanted to see a Silent Hill 1 remake in the same vein as the Resident Evil 1 remake for the cube.

[quote=HedonisticActor]I liked this film (and I consider it to be the best video game adaption there is) but then again I have never played any Silent Hill game so perhaps I'm not as dissapointed as I should be.[/quote]

Well I played all Silent Hill games and when I saw this movie I was VERY dissapointed but for someone who never played any Silent Hill games this movie probably wouldn't be that bad.

About the review: i liked it :side:
It didn't get all the bashing it deserves but it was ok. The funniest moment is when Heather says That disgusting who would do something like that?! Sundeland

Nice video. Occasionally I found your voice a bit boring but I liked it. I liked how you didn't just bash the film but also brought up some of it's good sides.

Yes, good visuals and some nice Easter-eggs if you're a fan but also a terrible narrative, unnecessary scenes and just being plain boring at times.
Sums the film up quite nicely.

Also, your scenes with Sean Bean was better than what we actually got in the film.

Great review, I agree with a lot of your points. Also your effects are nice and I love the references to the games. I hope you review Homecoming too, even though I haven't played it.

I'm surprised you didn't bring up what they did with Dr. Kaufmann and Lisa, namely cut completely/reduced to a cameo.

[color=olive]Even though the movie took several unnecessary liberties with the story, I still enjoyed it. That otherworld transition in your room was pretty impressive![/color]

of all the video games adaptation, Silent Hill really comes off as the best, it's a really convincing movie... a movie only based on solitary exploration wouldn't have been that entertaining...

the story of the movie is more of a melting pot of the ingredient of the games, it shouldn't be blamed for its slight changes...

The movie is way more than descent, it was a good movie, and it gave a good feeling of silent hill for people who never heard of the franchise

the french director is a big fan of the franchise, I think they basicaly tried to make it a little bit more appealing to a mainstream audience, adding more explanations, I actually think that the sean bean scene when they cross each other in the two world is a great scene the way its done...

so I think this review is a little too much about "they changed this and that, and it's not like that in the game" than a real bad review beat down


I enjoyed the video, but I'm not sure this movie deserved any rants, because it would be more like saying they removed the squid from the watchmen, or put elves in Elm...


It's not SuperMario,Mortal Kombat, Dead or Alive or House of the Dead...

No, it's not the most horrible video game movie ever but, at least from my perspective, it's not what it should have been. Yeah of course I expected slight changes and if that's all there was it wouldn't have bothered me that much. Where they made the major changes to story and characters is what really bothered me with it.
Like I said there are a lot of good points to this movie but I think with what they did it'd been better off as a completely different Silent Hill story.
I understand you point of view on it as well though.
I DID give a warning that I might fanboy out a bit much on the games... :whistle:

I agree with Benzaie on all of his points, especially the Sean Bean scenes, just because (though still jarring), it acts like "Silent Hill - for Dummies" and explains more about the town, cannon to the series or not. Besides, Bean and the cop had some of the better dialogue and their characters felt more 'consistent' than Rose's 'scared/brave' moodswings.

Christoph Gans, the director, did a superb job with the camera angles and atmosphere. Also the little things: Hop-Scotch going HELL to HEAVEN, and if you watch the movie, Rose's dress changes from brown, to gray, to blood red. Gans is brilliant.

But I wish that Roger Avery's script was put through the grinder. Some of the dialogue was SOOOOO bad.

*Beginning when Rose watches her daughter color, in a field with no one around*, "Did you draw that by yourself?" NO, MOM, THE MONKEY IN MY ASS HELPED OUT.

*Standing in a room that was blackened by a fire* - ROSE says, "Looks like there was a fire." DUH!

Fun with PyramidHead? BLASPHEMY!!!!!!!
(joking... kind of... not really. Pyramid Head = GOD.)

But I'm glad you gave the movie a fair review rather than just bash the film. You did an awesome job. Keep it up.

As much as I [i]hate[/i] this movie, I really can't agree with you on the idea that they should have just made a faithful translation.
It just doesn't work like that. Especially not in Silent Hill 1 where like.. 50% of the story is told through notes and examining your surroundings. They had to make changes to make it work as a movie.
And even if it [i]had[/i] worked to just make an exact copy of the game, I wouldn't want that since it would have essentially been exactly like playing SH, except without me having any control of the main character.. so why would I want someone to waste millions to make that movie when I already own the superior game?

But yeah, all in all it's a terrible, terrible movie.. and not just as a video game adaption. The story lacks any structure and it's never scary since they rarely bother to build up any suspense..
They remain faithful to the series in completely stupid ways, like throwing enemies at the main character that has absolutely no relevance to the story, just because they are Silent Hillish.. and using the music from the games even though they NEVER manage to make it fit with the atmosphere. They should have gotten Akira Yamaoka to make a custom soundtrack for the movie instead.
And they completely miss these obvious chances to pay homage to the series where it would actually work.. like naming the girl Cheryl and using one of the marks from the games instead of some ugly crucifix.

I just can't for the life of me understand how so many fans of the series actually enjoy the movie. All it's got going for it is the visuals.

Hahaha yeah of course I don't really want to watch a movie about someone looking through a bunch of notes, that's what Sean Bean did in this movie. I just think they should have been more faithful to the story, or have made a completely different one. Yeah Akira Yamaoka actually doing a new soundtrack for it would have been much better.
Totally agree about the symbol too, should have been the Halo of the Sun one from 3, as that was what the cult used.

Yeah that movie totally messed up the first game. PH wasn't even in the first game. They made it some kind of weird SH 1 & 2 hybrid. Good job though. Love the dog parts and the Other World thing.

That summed up well disapointment that you and everyone else had that saw that movie.

The Wii game will not be a port.
It's going to be a reimagination of the original game.
The story will be told differently and depening on how you play (and how you answer some questions in the beginning of the game) you'll get different scenes (the developers say that Silent Hill used to get under the skin of the protagonist, but will now get under the skin of the player).
There will apparently be no fighting and you'll have to find your way around the enemies.

But really.. it's still not Team Silent, so I severely doubt it's going to be very good.

Aside from the changes that I agree should not have been made, I think Silent Hill was an excellent movie.

Why? Think of all the video game based movies that made you want to engage in match of puck-inducing filth. Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Bros... even Resident Evil!

From a film maker's perspective, and I'm sure we all can understand that making films takes a lot of hard work and determination from everyone involved.

Silent Hill, by far, has to be the best movie made based on ANY video game series! Look with the film has done for Silent Hill 5!

I think it could have been better going on it's flaws, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse!

I absolutely loved the movie Silent Hill, I really thought it was a great, especially for a game adaptation which are 99% of the time complete and utter failures. Maybe that's because I've never played the games and therefore had no expectations...

That's the main problem with game adaptations. The gamers know absolutely everything there is to know about their game and expect every little aspects of it to appear in the movie. Unfortunetaly, that's rarely doable. They can't adapt to the changes and consider the movie a failure if it doesn't match their gaming experience.

But from what I can tell, Silent Hill is probably the best game-to-movie adaptation ever made...

I think I remember reading that the original intention was to make this a mini series, sort of like the Band of Brothers mini series.

Great review, man. I totally agree. I was pissed when I saw this movie.

Good review, Phelous. You did a good job at reviewing this... what would be the word to discribe this movie? I mean it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. It was enjoyble at points, but it defently could of been beter. Oh well.
I also liked the special effects you did toward the end, with the other world change and the evil 1-up mushroom.
I personally am not really fimilar with the Silent Hill games. I did play Silent Hill 2 when I bought it around Halloween. Only played, like, an hour of it and it was very scary, even the first half-hour when your just walking around an ominice path to town without any monsters. While it wasn't my cup of tea, it defently did feel well done.

There's actually a rumor going around that they may be making a remake of the first Silent Hill for the Wii.

Though it's just a rumor, so I doubt it's true, it'd be kinda cool though.

Edit: Bah, someone already mentioned it, so maybe it's not just a rumor.

I agree on many of your points. But unlike many who have not played the games, I have. All of them. And I was not disappointed with the movie. It seemed to stay pretty close to the game as any video game movie adaption I've seen.

BTW
"Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is an upcoming video game in the Silent Hill series. The game is a loose remake, formally dubbed a "reimagining" by the production staff, of the original 1999 Silent Hill game."

-Wikipedia

To be fair I enjoyed the silent hill movie a lot more on the second sitting, at home, with some distractions. The film got so many things right, and so many wrong. My biggest hates were

1 ) the exposition - demon alyssa narrating the plot, because the script was too dumb to include it

2) the nurse - Lisa is in this film for the exact same reason the word pancreas is in this sentence.

3) Sean Bean - Love the guy. Sharpe, Goldeneye, Lord of the Rings. But christ he was pointless in this. Admittedly producers forced a male character into the film, hence the awkwardness of his role, but ugh...

4) OTT - I don't know if it was Cybill's cremation, PH flaying a woman, or Christabel being raped by razor wire, but at some point in the movie something made me say 'gone too far' which is impressive given the source material.

5) The siren - Why did they have to justify the air raid siren? Its symbolic of japan's greatest fear (the atom bomb). The air raid siren preceeded the allied fire bombings of the city. It's not some gypsies hiding in a church.

Things I loved though were:

1) Music - F--k an original soundtrack. The game music is flawless, so don't change it.

2) Set design and lighting - The place looked and felt like Silent Hill alright, from the hospital down to the ashen streets.

3) The monsters - Pyramid Head, the Ash Babies, the miners with the canaries, the janitor, the list goes on. A perfect mix of CGI and makeup.

4) Camera Work - Some of it taken right from the game, but some of it original. The filming was spot on.

5) Dahlia Gillespie - Sure you hate the re-write, but I do love the way she is portrayed. Truly a majestic, theatrical performance, of this helpess, hagard victim of her own ignorance. I think she's the only one in the town of SH who feels like she belongs there.

In summary, this movie was like a bed of nails, with a really comfy pillow. Awesome review, and loved the dark ending to your review. So you know though, the director went on record as saying he had a sexual thing for blonde women, hence the lead change to Rose DeSilva.

WHOLEheartedly agree with complaint #4! They went way over the top with the gore/brutality. I know a lot of people would say something along the lines of, "Well, it's based off of a horror game--what did you expect?"

But if you think about it, the games never really show stuff like that graphically (well, aside from the electrocution scene in SH4, but that's only ONCE in the series where the movie did it three times). Take Maria in SH2--she dies in some pretty brutal ways, but it's always OFF-screen.

I mean, I love scares and gore as much as the next person, but there comes a point where it can be taken too far and just comes off as tasteless.

< /end rant> =P

Regarding the air raid siren, note that the Silent Hill videogame was based off
of the movie Jacob's Ladder. It has tons of similarities, from the featherless
birds to the creepy hospitals. The air raid siren may very well have been taken
from the hospital scene in the movie. When Jacob is being carried on a
stretcher down the endless corridors, you can hear the siren. Check it out:
it's the first thing you hear in this
video.

http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SXXbIOc9h4g& feature=PlayList& p=2FFE903B4C
1BA263&playnext=1& playnext_from=PL&index=7

Also, does that bike with the
spinning wheel look a little familiar?

fantastic point and reference. I actually watched Jacob's Ladder way back in 1999. Forgot how messed up it was. *spoiler in white text* [color=white]From what I remember, he's actually bleeding to death in an american hospital in vietnam, and this is his life flashing before his eyes. Things like the air raid siren and the amputees are probably what he sees in reality, morphed by the effects of the 'Ladder' and whatever anasthetic he's on.[/color] But yeah, fantastic movie, and thank you for pointing it out again. To say SH producers drew inspiration from that scene is taking it lightly :3

I think I saw the reference to Hiroshima and the air raid sirens in one of the PS magazines. Might have been the making of DVD with SH2. If not my apologies for getting it wrong. I always presumed this is why the air raid siren was so prominent in forbidden siren too. *goes to watch J.L*

Just thought I'd point out that the soundtracks of the Silent Hill series is by far my favorite soundtracks of any game. As you say, the music is perfect.

The problem with using the same music is that it wasn't originally written to be in the scenes that they put it in. That in itself would ruin any soundtrack for me, but it's made even worse by how in the game they are meant to be played either in a loop during general gameplay (as opposed to heightening the suspense of a particular scene or in the cutscenes which are all a lot different from your average movie scene.. with this bizarre and surreal atmosphere that wasn't in the movie.

Basically I think it's kind of like making a Mario movie and using only Mario tracks in the background. The Mario games have AWESOME music, but it would still seem extremely.. odd.. in any other context.

Awesome review, I agree with you 100% on every point.

I looked forward to this movie from the first moment I heard of it right to release.

Glad I didn't lay down any money on it.. watched it at a friends house, then decided it was not worth the money.

These guys need to learn to leave things well alone. Changes = failure.